To Fight For Those That Believe In You
by Thomas3Garchomp
Summary: The infamous Uchiha Itachi has been appointed by the Hokage as Naruto's jonin instructor. Now he'll change him into something great as Naruto changes Itachi too. NarutoxHarem later. NOT A YAOI!


**Hello readers. This is my first time writing a fanfic for Naruto, but i decided to give it a shot. I hope you like it.**

**A few notes first though. Firstly, in my story, the Third refused to have Itachi kill his entire clan. Instead, Itachi gave the names of all his clan who were involved in planning the takeover, and thus most of his clan was executed. There are still a number of fully fledged ninja who were loyal to the Hokage, and also all the children were spared. However, the clan is still greatly diminished and i'll mainly be focused on Itachi and Sasuke throughout the story. I may throw in a few other Uchiha's if i feel like it though.**

**I also have decided to make Itachi a main character in this story. He was literally, one of my favorite characters even when he was an insane psychopath. He's just so badass, i mean, he beat Kakashi in what...thirty seconds. So after they announced he's actually some good guy that decided to make a martyr of himself, that only upped him in my books.**

**Okay, the rest you should probably be able to pick up from the story. Actually, you could have picked up my last two points as well, but...oh well. Hope you enjoy. 'Chomp'**

_Hokage's office_

Sarutobi, the Third Hokage of The Hidden Leaf Village of Konoha was patiently waiting in his office. The ninja he was expecting rarely kept people waiting, and he wasn't disappointed. His secretary announced the arrival, and he walked in moments later.

Uchiha Itachi looked at the Third calmly as he announced, "You called for me, Hokage."

He didn't respond immediately as he first examined the Uchiha prodigy. Although possibly the strongest ninja in the village and one he personally trusted, he couldn't deny that Itachi sometimes managed to confuse him. Even outside of the Sharingan, Itachi was a genius of the Uchiha Clan, which often times was said to be the clan of geniuses. An ANBU Captain at 13, you would expect him to be arrogant or strictly follow the ninja rules. Although his usual expressionless mask that he wore seemingly fit the profile, the Third knew that Itachi was in fact very little of what one would expect. The traumatic memories of the Third Shinobi World War left him a pacifist and a staunch loyalist to Konoha. Behind the mash, Sarutobi knew that Itachi constantly regretted the lives he both directly and indirectly stole. Sarutobi also personally knew that one of his own greatest personal regrets was ordering Itachi to give him the names of all of the Uchiha Clan which were planning a coup, only behind his failure with Orochimaru and possibly several other questionable orders he had been forced to give during his long career as Hokage.

Banishing his guilty thoughts concerning Itachi from his mind, and looked at the Itachi currently standing in his office. Itachi was usually out running S ranked missions for Konoha, so when Sarutobi had an absolutely insane and spontaneous idea at the council meeting the previous night, he had been lucky that Itachi had gotten back from a three week long mission two days before. Naturally though, Sarutobi could still detect slight signs of fatigue from Itachi. Although he had put on a new ANBU uniform that he usually wore, one hand was bandaged and Itachi's Sharingan weren't activated, showing that he was still recovering from chakra exhaustion. Sarutobi nodded. Itachi deserved a less strenuous job for several months.

Sarutobi finally announced, "I'm sure that you are wondering why I've called you here without any prior notice, Itachi."

Itachi looked at the Hokage before nodding and replying, "Yes, Hokage-sama. Has an emergency come up?"

Sarutobi smiled at Itachi before explaining, "Of a sorts. Nothing along the lines that you are thinking, but still something that I consider of the utmost importance."

Itachi lowered his head as he answered, "Of course, Hokage-sama." As he said that though, Itachi's mind was turning as he tried to predict what the Hokage was talking about. Usually he was sent out on dangerous missions that only he, Kakashi, and several other high ranked jonins could usually undertake alone. If it wasn't along those lines, Itachi was slightly clueless. He immediately felt slightly grim at the possibility of another situation similar to the spying he had to perform on his clan. Was there suspicions of another coup being concocted?

Sarutobi could almost feel as Itachi's thoughts spiraled downward, so he quickly lifted his hands and claimed, "Calm down, Itachi. There should be no physical danger on this mission. The implications are more…political."

Itachi nodded and tried to relax his thoughts before questioning, "So may I please know what this mission is?"

Sarutobi grew unusually grave and folded his hands on the desk before looking at Itachi and announcing, "I am assigning you, Uchiha Itachi, to act as the jonin sensei of a newly instated genin, Uzumaki Naruto."

For once even Uchiha Itachi was speechless. Finally he managed to ask, "Uzumaki Naruto…as in the container for the Nine Tails." He had actually been too young at the time of the attack to learn such knowledge then, but he wasn't called a genius for nothing. He had been placed on guard duty for the child multiple times while in ANBU, and had managed to piece it together from the villagers yelling 'demon' and the child's birthday. In fact, he had never even had it confirmed, due to the law restricting anyone from speaking of it, but he was confident enough of it to say it to the Hokage here. It was then confirmed when the Hokage did an anxious nod. Itachi continued slowly, "Shouldn't the boy be placed among a team of other genin…and a more experienced sensei. I didn't even request a team this year, nor have I ever had a team."

Sarutobi nodded at the logical points Itachi brought up. He thought for a moment about how to explain it before continuing, "All valid points, and they can all be explained with a single answer. The council."

Itachi's brow visibly scrunched at the answer he received. As the current head of the Uchiha Clan, he was well versed in the politics of Konoha. The advising board of the Hokage was called the council. All though the Hokage technically had absolute authority, in most matters the council had great influence. The council itself was split into two different major sections. Civilian and ninja council. While the ninja council tended to naturally follow the lead of the Hokage, the civilian council members were taken from civilian members of Konoha and usually only followed the interests of civilians with little understanding or even a desire to understand ninja policy. Next to paperwork, the council was well known to be the greatest problem of the Hokage. However, despite officially being the head of the Uchiha Clan, Itachi usually didn't attend these Council meetings due to his duties as a ninja. Instead, his seat remained empty, except when a vote was cast, in which case, his vote would automatically be cast with the side that had the most ninja council members votes, so always with the Hokage.

Itachi quickly questioned, "So what happened to require one such as myself to teach a single student?"

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow before he replied, "I'm sure that you would be a good a sensei as you would anything else you did, Itachi. As for what happened, it would be easiest to start with what had been the planned team he had been assigned to. Naruto had been assigned to be on Team 7, under Hatake Kakashi, along with teammates Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at the mention of his younger brother. He could slightly picture the reason this had happened. Still, he simply nodded his head and muttered softly, "I see."

Sarutobi sighed before continuing, "Yes, the civilian council was most…displeased by the arrangement, despite our explanation that it is tradition to place the rookie of the year, the top kunoichi, and the last place together on a team. You see, the civilian side of the council has grown rather…fond of Sasuke, and they abhorred the idea of him being on the same team as Naruto."

Itachi frowned in displeasure. He had heard of this before. After his 'betrayal' of many of the Uchiha Clan years before which left less than thirty Uchiha left, most of which were women or children, him and Sasuke had a noticeable rift grow between them. Also, to the rest of the village, the remaining members of the clan could be split up into two groups. Itachi and the grown ninja left in the clan who made it clear that their loyalty would be to the Hokage, and the remaining who felt bitter about the executions of those who had been attempting a coup. For some reason though, this group was instead thought of as pro-civilian or anti-Hokage, and Sasuke was somehow thought of as the figurative leader, as the second son of the head family. To Itachi's knowledge, Sasuke didn't even know of such positions being attributed to him. It also didn't seem to have any major effects beside the civilian council doing everything it could do show Sasuke favoritism. Even that had little effect as Itachi was doing everything in his power to try and make sure that Sasuke grow up without having things handed to him.

Itachi also knew about the civilian hostility to Naruto. Hell, even a vast majority of ninja did the same thing. Itachi still remembered his days in ANBU when he had been assigned to protect the boy from any attacks that might by attempted, and they had been attempted…a lot. Growing up with the protection of the Uchiha Clan, Itachi had never known such hatred as the hatred the villagers had for Naruto. It was this hatred that carried over onto the civilian council. The civilian council were representatives picked from the well-to-do families of civilians. They had all the hatred of Naruto as the civilians did, if not more.

To put it simply, they did not want their favorite in Sasuke on a team with the 'demon', Naruto.

Itachi quickly asked, "Couldn't you have still pushed it through? This is a traditional team for genin, and I'm sure that the ninja side would have supported it. Plus, I thought that Kakashi-san was actually looking forward to teaching Naruto." He didn't need to mention why.

Sarutobi nodded before admitting, "Yes, and that was my original plan. In truth, there is little that made me decide to change the plan besides the fact that this new one could possibly work better. Consider it, Itachi. The council had been pressing me hard to put those two on different teams, and honestly, based on the reports I've received from Iruka, I doubt the three would have the best teamwork in the best place. I feel that they could grow to be close, but currently, the gap in skill and talent between Naruto and Sasuke is too large. Sasuke needs a rival to push him to grow and succeed, and Naruto needs an attentive teacher to give him to ability to grow. Nothing against Kakashi, but he would be more concerned about the team as a whole to do this. In fact, I doubt any teacher would be capable of giving Naruto the attention needed while not neglecting the other two."

Itachi picked up on what the Hokage meant and finished, "So you wondered about putting them on different teams, Naruto by himself so that he could receive the attention he needs."

Sarutobi smiled and nodded. He continued his explanation, "You know that the council always wanted Kakashi to teach Sasuke because of his Sharingan."

Itachi nodded, although in truth he didn't quite understand the logic. In was common gossip that himself, the Hokage, Kakashi, and Guy, were considered the strongest in Konoha with a number of other battling for the fifth spot, and for whatever reason, the civilian council thought that they had a better chance of influencing Kakashi than Itachi with Itachi giving the names of his Clan's traitors to the Hokage several years before. In Itachi's opinion though, Kakashi's loyalty was at least equal, if not greater than his own. So this entire reasoning didn't make sense to him, but little of what the civilian council did made sense to him.

Sarutobi continued, "Well when the idea of splitting up Team 7 came to me, the council immediately agreed to it. They absolutely loved the idea of Kakashi having more time to focus on your younger brother, and I think you can guess why I suggested why you should serve as the teacher for Naruto."

Itachi gave an almost unnoticeable nod before he whispered to low for the hidden ANBU to hear, "Mangekyo Sharingan."

Sarutobi nodded gravely before continuing in a whisper, "It gives you a measure of control over the Nine Tails. Not only am I sure that you will be a more than capable teacher to Naruto, but if an emergency happens to arrive with his…tenant than there is no one better suited than yourself to deal with you.

Itachi didn't react now. It all made sense to him, but he still felt hesitant about it. It wasn't even his reluctance to use the forbidden form of Sharingan. After obtaining it after being forced to kill Shisui when he found out his role as a spy for the Hokage, Itachi could count the number of times he'd used it on his hand. He also wasn't prejudiced against Naruto for the Nine Tails sealed inside of him, the Fourth Hokage had been a genius, and a sort of hero to Itachi. If he wasn't capable of properly sealing a bijuu, then no one was. Maybe it was the fact that Itachi was never much of a kids person then. His own brother practically viewed him as a traitor.

Sarutobi seemed to pick up on his apprehension, so he sighed before said slowly, "I realize that this might be a change of pace for you, Itachi, but I need you to do this. I feel nervous about Naruto. Despite all my efforts, the attitude of the village has yet to change concerning the child. I now know that nothing I or anyone else can do will change their attitude. Naruto must do that himself, and I feel that he had the drive and determination to do that, but he still needs someone to guide him. Please Itachi, I must ask that you trust me here."

Itachi didn't reply immediately. The moments of silence stretched into minutes as Itachi stared at the Hokage. Finally, loyalty won out over doubt. Itachi bowed his head and announced, "If that is the case Hokage-sama, then I feel I have little choice, but to accept."

Sarutobi let out a sigh of relief as his shoulders simultaneously relaxed. He was too old for this. For hours he had been worried that Itachi might refuse to accept, and then who knows whether the council would still allow the original Team 7.

Sarutobi gave Itachi the largest smile he had that day before saying in a voice dripping with true gratitude, "Thank you, Itachi. I cannot explain how much it eases my mind to know that you shall be teaching the boy. I have been able to do too little for the child, and too few in this town have taken the time to treat him with even a small measure of kindness." Itachi didn't really know how to reply, so Sarutobi handed him a file and informed him, "I'll handle telling Kakashi of the changes. Unfortunately, the new genin are suppose to meet their jonin instructors in about two hours. Sorry about the short notice, but we were just informed that Naruto passed last night. So try and look over his file, and compose a test to see if he'll fit the requirements of what you'll expect."

Itachi nodded. Although he was curious why they learned Naruto only passed last night when he had learned Sasuke passed over two days ago, but he figured he would have time to ask Naruto. Plus, he needed to read over the file and devise a test for the young Jinchuriki. Usually there were a number of standard tests which were used to test the potential teamwork of the newly formed team of genin, with the jonin most often using the same test they themselves were subjected to. However, since Naruto would be the only student of Itachi, he would need to devise a different test. A test for teamwork would be silly.

Itachi gave a quick salute before leaving to prepare.

_With Naruto_

Naruto laid his head on the desk with a dejected sigh. This was not turning into a good day. He had woken up excited because he was now officially a genin after that whole issue with Mizuki and Iruka yesterday, but that had quickly gone down hill after arriving at the academy. He had been so excited that he hadn't noticed that he had sat down next to that arrogant Uchiha Sasuke. Minutes later, Ino and Sakura had rushed through the door as part of a competition, and had then ignored his existence as they started fawning over Sasuke, resulting in them pushing him right out of his chair. In his, in his opinion, rightful annoyance, Naruto had gotten in Sasuke's face, but when someone had accidentally elbowed him…they had…they had…kissed. Naruto's first kiss was with Uchiha Sasuke. Not to mention all of Sasuke's fan girls had subsequently beaten him for it. Yep, not his best start to the day ever.

Naruto was pulled out of his despair by Iruka-sensei walking into the room. Naruto lifted his head and fixed his gaze on his new favorite teacher as Iruka-sensei turned to the class and clapped his hands as he announced, "Attention everyone." After everyone turned to look at him and stopped talking, which took a while, Iruka-sensei continued, "Okay everyone. First of all, I would like to congratulate you all for successfully graduating this academy. It had been my pleasure as your teacher to see you all grow so much. I wish you all the best in your future careers as ninjas. Now, I shall start to announce the teams in which you shall be a part of."

Naruto lowered his chin to the desk as Iruka-sensei started announcing the teams. He was just waiting for his name to be announced, so he didn't even hear about most of the teams. The first thing that caught his interest was when after Iruka-sensei finished announcing Team 6, and then immediately started on Team 8. Apparently Naruto wasn't the only one to notice, as multiple heads perked up.

Naruto turned to the kid who was sitting next to him, Shikamaru, and asked, "Why did Iruka-sensei skip Team 7?"

Shikamaru shrugged his shoulders before replying in a bored voice, "I don't know. It's too troublesome anyway to think about it. He'll probably explain in a little bit."

Naruto frowned a little bit at Shikamaru's disinterested manner, but quickly shrugged it off. He was always like that. Instead Naruto listened to the rest of the teams being announced. Naruto froze when Team 10 was announced. Naruto did the math in his head along with everyone who had already been assigned a team. The result left Naruto with mixed feelings.

He was with that stupid Uchiha and Sakura. He had always liked Sakura, despite her liking Sasuke, and so that part made him happy. Still, he couldn't believe that with everyone else in the class, he got paired up with Sasuke, possibly his least favorite person. He wasn't even sure what to think about the team.

He was removed from his thoughts though when Iruka-sensei continued, "Some of you no doubt noticed that I didn't explain about Team 7, see a special arrangement has been decided upon by the Hokage concerning the Team 7. Officially, Team 7 shall consist of Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura together under a jonin instructor."

Naruto immediately burst out loudly, "Hey, what about me, Iruka-sensei? Shouldn't I also be in that team?"

Iruka looked at Naruto before replying calmly, long since used to Naruto's outbursts, "After an emergency meeting of the council yesterday, the Hokage decided on a different arrangement than usual for you, Naruto. You shall be by yourself, studying under a different instructor until further notice."

Naruto felt his jaw drop as the room burst out in whispers. Throughout the room, what this meant was heavily varied. Many people throughout the room immediately figured that the council and thus the Hokage thought that putting the 'dead last' on a genin team would be dragging down an entire team, so they figured that this entire arrangement must be to just stick Naruto somewhere where he can't cause any trouble. There were a few that thought differently though. Shikamaru mainly. Shikamaru was thinking to himself while still looking like he was trying to sleep to everyone else, 'His own instructor. I wouldn't want one, too troublesome, but if anything, that is good. Having a teacher that can focus entirely on him is far better than being forced to work with an entire team. I always knew there was something different about Naruto because of how he was treated, but what could cause him to be put by himself. My dad has never even mentioned such a thing.'

Naruto though, was thinking the same as the first group. 'Is this punishment for what happened last night? I thought the old man understood that it wasn't my fault. Why can't I have teammates like everyone else? I thought I was finally going to have the opportunity to have friends and be part of a group.'

Iruka-sensei quickly dismissed his students after the announcement for lunch with news that they would meet their jonin instructors afterwards. While most of the kids went to have lunch with their new teams, Naruto took this opportunity to try to interrogate Iruka-sensei.

"What's the deal, Iruka-sensei? Is this because of yesterday? It wasn't my fault. Why can't I have a team too? This isn't fair, Iruka-sensei?" Naruto continued to argue loudly to the teacher about anything he could think of.

Iruka-sensei, for his part, managed to take it pretty well. He was well used to Naruto by now, and could even claim to like the young jinchuriki, but his patience finally started to run thin when after several minutes Naruto showed no signs of stopping. Iruka reached out his hand quickly and used his hand to cover Naruto's mouth. With his student finally quiet, he answered, "I'm sorry, Naruto, but I truly don't know anymore. These are just the teams I was given. I would recommend asking your new jonin instructor though. He'll most likely have more information for you."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. He then realized he still had his hand over Naruto's mouth, but before he could remove it, Naruto pulled the most typical childish trick in the book. He licked it.

Naruto watched as Iruka-sensei pulled his hand back in disgust before he snapped, "Fine then. Don't tell me." Naruto quickly turned and stomped back to the same seat he was sitting at before and sat to wait for lunch to end.

Unfortunately, he had a while to wait. Naruto didn't feel like eating the pitiful lunch he brought, and it seemed that this lunch break was unusually long to allow the new teams some time to bond. It was easily over an hour before the students started to file back in, and then twenty more before everyone was back in the class. That was three times more than enough to put Naruto in the kind of mood where he felt like painting the Hokage monument again, only this time with permanent paint.

When all the students were seated, as if on a signal, the sliding door in the front of the classroom opened, allowing a line of people to walk into the room. The jonin instructors, students all over the classroom perked up at the sight of them. The jonin instructors quickly started announcing the teams which they would take.

However, before any of the jonin instructors could leave the room with their new teams, another person walked through the door. Even the jonin instructors paused as this person entered. This immediately caught the attention of Naruto, who looked closer at the new jonin. He didn't look that intimidating at first glance. He certainly didn't have a large build, and he had long black hair that framed his face in the front while the rest was pulled back into a ponytail, and Naruto also saw that he seemed to have distinctive marks on the side of his nose. For some reason, he looked extremely familiar to Naruto in multiple ways.

Naruto was snapped out of his thoughts by an unexpected shout. Sasuke, who had been staring out the window with little concern for the jonin instructors seconds before, seemed to have also felt the change in attitude by the jonin. As soon as he had caught sight of the new arrival, Sasuke had stood up so fast that his chair tipped backwards, and then in a very un-Sasuke like manner, slammed his hands on the desk in panic and yelled, "Itachi!"

The object of his shout didn't flinch or give any reaction other then looking at Sasuke briefly. Naruto then watched as this 'Itachi' turned to the students and asked in a soft, yet still somehow stern voice, "Uzumaki Naruto?" Naruto stood up slowly in a daze after hearing the voice. Itachi looked at him briefly before nodding, as if approving the look of Naruto, before he announced, "Uzumaki Naruto. I am Uchiha Itachi, and I shall be your jonin instructor from this day forward. Follow me."

As soon as the name was mentioned, almost every student in the room froze. Even Naruto knew the name, and he immediately knew one reason why he looked familiar. That would also explain Sasuke's reaction. There were several differences, but anyone could see that the two were siblings. Naruto almost forgot his anger over not being in a team just from the look on Sasuke's face. Priceless! Still, Naruto immediately felt nervous when he remembered who Uchiha Itachi was. The rumors about him were endless. Graduating the academy at 7, being promoted to chunin at 10, and then becoming an ANBU captain at 13. Then there were the whole maelstrom of rumors about his betrayal of the Uchiha Clan. There probably wasn't a single person in the entire city that didn't at least know the name itself, although truthfully Naruto would have expected a somewhat more intimidating person to be so famous.

Naruto was forced out of his thoughts when he saw Itachi walk out of the room. Scrambling to stand, Naruto quickly moved to follow the man.

Shikamaru watched with half-closed eyes as Naruto ran to follow his new sensei. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed slightly as he thought lazily, 'Uchiha Itachi. That's a surprise. There is no way such a valuable ninja would be used to simply keep Naruto out of trouble as many people had been thinking before about what was to happen with Naruto, in fact, he had difficulty even imagining the Hokage allowing such an important ninja to the village as Uchiha Itachi stay off of missions long enough to act as a jonin instructor. Yep, this wasn't normal.' His lazy nature though stopped him from thinking anymore as he decided to continue doing nothing till that bossy Ino dragged him to their new jonin instructor.

_With Naruto minutes later_

As soon as Naruto had walked out of the academy after his new teacher he didn't even have a moment to think. After a gruff command of "follow," Naruto quickly found himself doing everything in his power to not lose sight of his teacher.

Naruto was forced to go on an all-out chase through Konoha. After leveling more than a few civilians in his rush, the chase quickly moved to the rooftops. Naruto jumped to a nearby rooftop with relief, but that quickly ended when he saw that his new teacher had picked up the pace even more once there were no civilians to worry about. Naruto let out a groan as he rushed to keep up. He had a feeling this wasn't going to be pleasant.

He was right. Ten minutes later, Naruto collapsed in a wide field right in the area Naruto knew the training fields were. Naruto started gasping with his face blood red as he laid on the ground. Naruto had always been proud of his stamina, but that was just ridiculous. Sure, he could go for long amounts of time and take lots of hits, but that was a desperate sprint, which was far more exhausting than a smooth sprint, through Konoha. No matter how much stamina he might have, Naruto knew that he didn't have nearly the raw speed required to keep up with someone of Uchiha Itachi's standard. The fact that Naruto had even managed to keep up somewhat was due to his stamina, and most likely his new teacher slowed down just enough so that Naruto didn't lose sight of him. He obviously didn't slow down enough that Naruto didn't have an extremely hard time of it though. 'Fucking Uchiha,' Naruto cussed in his mind as he tried to regain his breath.

After a minute, Naruto managed to push himself to his hands and knees. It seemed his stamina wasn't useless after all today. Naruto struggled to his feet grumbling about his new teacher, but secretly feeling slightly proud because he knew that most people in his class couldn't have kept up at that pace and definitely no one would have been up and moving like him without another five minutes of gasping on the ground.

When he was fully recovered, Naruto looked around him. When he had been chasing his new teacher, after reaching the training fields, Naruto saw Uchiha Itachi stop on this exact spot before…vanishing. There was no other way to describe it. His eyes didn't see any movement whatsoever, not even a twitch of the leg to help show which direction his teacher had gone in. That was probably good though as Naruto doubted he could have gone another ten steps, but now he was nervous. What happens if your jonin instructor ditches you? He knew that no one else would have to deal with something like that, but Naruto had long since learned he couldn't expect fair treatment from many people in Konoha. Although he only found out the reason why the night before, he had known something had been wrong with him since he was a child and was thrown out of the orphanage. Maybe this Uchiha Itachi was another one of his haters.

Something told him that wasn't true though. He had a gut feeling that he was right around here, almost waiting for Naruto to recover from the chase. Deciding that he had little else to go on, Naruto decided to follow his gut, as was his policy most of the time.

Naruto walked into the thick layer of trees surrounding the training area he had lost sight of his teacher at, and continued working his way into the forest. After five minutes where the doubt in his mind continued to grow to a point where he was sure that his instructor had ditched him, Naruto finally reached another clearing.

Naruto almost doubted his eyes for several moments. After moving through such a dense part of the forest, it was almost unnatural arriving at this clearing. The trees literally stopped as if a circle was drawn on the ground, and that formed the clearing. The clearing itself didn't fit with the rest of the forest either. There wasn't even a single tree or even a plant larger than the grass that completely covered the ground. Almost a perfect circle with a diameter of about thirty meters, it was small, pretty, and had only one other feature. At the very center of the clearing, a circular white stone that rose about three feet up was situated, and sitting on that stone…was Uchiha Itachi. He was calmly waiting with his elbow on his knee and his chin resting in his hand as he watched Naruto reach the clearing.

Naruto immediately froze as he looked at his new teacher. The eyes…they were blood red with some design in them. The Sharingan. Naruto was forced to suppress a shiver. Sasuke hadn't been able to use it at the academy, and if Naruto believed all the rumors about it, then he was basically looking at the strongest bloodline in Konoha.

He thought this as he walked toward his new teacher in the clearing. When he was within a few feet though, his teacher moved. Naruto froze as a punch connected with his stomach, and then gasped and dropped to the ground once the pain hit. As he cradled his torso which was screaming in agony, he thought, 'Holy Fucking Shit! What just hit me? Is this the punch of a true jonin? My God, I've been beaten by civilian mobs, a spare ninja or two, the academy instructors, his fellow classmates, and even hit by Mizuki the previous night, but that doesn't even compare to this. Wait, why the hell is he hitting me? Did he just bring me out here so that he could kill me?'

Still clutching his stomach, Naruto lifted his watering eyes to look at his teacher. Sitting in the exact same position, it was difficult to tell that he had even moved besides the pain now coursing through Naruto's body. Before Naruto could manage to gasp any words, his eyes locked with the Sharingan of his teacher. Naruto froze.

Naruto felt helpless as he looked into those eyes. It was as if all his will was sucked out of his body, and replaced with terror. His teacher started to let out a ridiculous amount of killer intent as well to add to Naruto's terror. Naruto had been forced to endure that for as long as he could remember and felt confident in his ability to take it, but never in this amount. It felt as if the very air was saturated with it, and was preventing him from moving. Fuck, he was fighting to stay conscious.

Once it was clear that Naruto was completely immobile from his combination of genjutsu to induce terror and his killing intent, Itachi started speaking with an impossibly hard voice, "You better listen because I'm not repeating myself. I have learned that you have learned that you are the container for the Nine Tails Fox, good. Now then, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me if you are dead last or Rookie of the Year, whether you hold the Nine Tails or you killed it, I don't even care if you come from a clan or are an orphan. What does matter to me is that I have been given the mission to act as your jonin instructor. Now, I don't want to do that. In my opinion, my time is much better spent doing important missions for the village than teaching a rookie genin. So, I have only one option to get out of this mission. All the genin have to take a second test to see if they have the determination and mindset to be a proper genin. At least 2/3 of your class will fail this second test, and I'm not even going to give you that much of a chance. I will make you fail this test one way or another, now you have to decide how you are going to fail."

Itachi paused to look at Naruto who was still on the ground frozen. He continued, "This is the test. You shall rush at me. That time before counted as the first time, so I hit you once. The next time you rush at me, I shall hit you twice. The third time you rush at me, I shall hit you three times. This pattern shall continue to either you give up, pass out, or you manage to rush me fifty times. If you manage to stay conscious till the end, then you pass. However, I should advise you that there is absolutely no chance of such a thing happening. You have one other option though. If you choose to quit now, I shall go to the Hokage and request that you be put on a genin team like everyone else. You would finally be a part of something and you would have the chance to make friends. However, if you stay here, and rush at me again, then when you fail, I shall make sure that you never become a ninja…period. Those are the conditions of the test. So when you stand, either rush at me again or turn around and walk away."

Naruto looked at him with wide eyes. Naruto almost immediately turned to walk away, but once again a feeling in his gut told him not to. Naruto paused and did something he didn't often do, he thought about the situation he was in. He went over the whole test along with everything he had been told. Wasn't this exactly what he wanted? If he left than he could be put on a genin team like everyone else, that was exactly what he wanted…but something about it seemed too easy. Naruto briefly thought about what his teacher had said. He didn't want a student. It was entirely believable that Itachi gave him this deal so that he could get him off his back, but something still made Naruto feel as if something was wrong and experience had long since proven to Naruto to follow his gut feelings, so Naruto thought harder. Something was wrong here. The old man wouldn't have sent him a teacher like this for no reason. So why would the old man put him by himself and under this guy?

Not able to find any answer, Naruto looked up at Uchiha Itachi, and could almost swear that he saw approval in his eyes. Deciding to continue this, Naruto struggled against the terror still holding him in its grasp and questioned, "What happens if I don't run? If by some miracle I manage to pass this test, what happens then? What would you do?"

Itachi stayed completely expressionless as he answered in a blank voice, "As useless as these questions are, since you won't pass, but I guess since I still technically am your teacher, I need to answer. If you managed to pass this test, then I must treat this like any other mission I take. I would have no way to drop it. I also never do anything less than my best on a mission, so I would be honor bound to do the same as your teacher. So you would have the undivided attention of myself at least until you reach chunin. Since being a teacher would also encompass doing my best to allow you to fulfill your goals as well. I won't comment on your apparent dream to become Hokage, many dream that as a child and few succeed at that goal, and as you grow, you may find that you don't want the job. However, the concurrent dream of yours to be recognized by the village is more manageable. I am not a social person throughout the village, so the single way that I could most likely help you is to train you. If there is one thing people must acknowledge, it is power. So basically, if you pass this test, I would feel obligated to do all in my power to turn you into a powerful and competent ninja. Since it is impossible though, decide! Turn and join an different genin team or never become a ninja!"

Naruto looked at Itachi with eyes wide. He didn't understand a whole lot of that speech, but he did get the ending. He could have Uchiha Itachi as a teacher, determined to make him stronger. That alone was unbelievable, but Naruto also caught something else from that speech. Even though it wasn't said throughout there, Naruto almost felt as if there was something Itachi was trying to tell him. It hit him almost as hard as the punch from before, but this didn't hurt. Naruto was almost dazed as he realized. 'He's basically saying if I pass this test, then he will acknowledge my existence. He will help me. He won't see me as the fox demon or as dead last. He will see me as his student through and through.' This realization almost made tears come to Naruto's eyes.

Naruto slowly shook off the terror gripping him and stood up. Naruto stood before looking at the man he was going to force to acknowledge him with even more intensity than he had felt the previous night facing off against Mizuki. Itachi met the stare of Naruto without flinching.

Naruto looked at his teacher for several moments before announcing with his voice dripping with determination, "Yeah right. What kind of Hokage would I be if I couldn't even do something like this?"

Itachi let out an almost imperceptible smile as Naruto charged him.

The good feelings didn't last long. Twenty minutes later, Itachi looked down and a bleeding and motionless Naruto with anger and slight relief. He held it down as he announced, "That was your sixteenth rush, and it looks like that is it."

Itachi was mad not at Naruto, but at himself. This entire test that he had designed was meant to test the child's determination to grow stronger and succeed. The moment Naruto continued the test, he had passed. If he had walked away, Itachi would have just let the Hokage decide on what to do? What made him mad though is that Naruto wouldn't stay down? Itachi had hit him once before explaining the rules to show him pain, and then explained the rules of the test which basically made it so that if he continued the test, that pain was only the tip of the iceberg. Most new genin definitely couldn't take the pain and would have walked away. Itachi knew that Naruto was more used to pain than most people because of his childhood, which is why Itachi felt there was a chance of him passing. Naruto's desire to have people acknowledge him was greater than his fear of pain. Few could claim as much.

This was just ridiculous though. Itachi had planned on ending this by knocking Naruto out right after he accepted the test, but, once again, Naruto wouldn't stay down. There had to be a limit as to how much of a pain tolerance a person could have. Four or five hits he could understand, but making it all the way to sixteen rushes. Each time Naruto moved forward, Itachi hit him with barrages of punches which would have put down most chunin. Still, Naruto somehow endured all this to continue getting up. Sure, he could have used a number of pressure points to simply force Naruto into unconsciousness, but Itachi felt like he couldn't. As long as Naruto was willing to take the punishment, some part of Itachi felt like not responding to such determination was dirty.

That didn't help him much now though, looking down on the broken and bleeding boy at his feet. Itachi sighed as he kneeled down to pick up the boy. He'd take him to the hospital before sending a message to the Hokage that Naruto had passed. As Itachi picked Naruto up, he looked at the bruised and cut up face. That determination will either kill Naruto or it will make possibly make him a ninja like no other. Itachi felt his first hint of excitement in years growing inside of him at seeing which it was before he leaped away carrying his new genin student.

**So, how was it? I am welcome to all reviews, but if you really didn't like it, try and be nice. I'm sensitive (fake tears)**

**I also am unsure about what to do about Sasuke. I always hated the little buttmuncher even before he turned all evil. Not to mention he killed Itachi...kinda. Anyways, for now he'll almost view Itachi as a traitor and not his brother, but his whole life goal isn't to kill Itachi right now. What i want to know is if you guys want him to betray the village later? I don't care, so i might as well try to please the readers.**

**The next chapter will have Itachi's first lesson for Naruto, and some other stuff. Look forward to it. 'Chomp'**


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